Background: Osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma are the most common chemosensitive sarcomas of the bone.
Aim: Development in chemotherapeutic concepts as well as current and future treatment strategies in osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma are presented.
Methods: A PubMed search for "Osteosarcoma" and "Ewing sarcoma" was performed, and pertinent results were summarized.
Results: In both osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma, outcomes achieved with multimodal treatment concepts combining conventional chemotherapy and local treatment have reached a plateau of about 70% for 5-year survival rates.
Discussion: Improved insights into the molecular biology and genetics of the diseases as well as insights into the interactions between sarcoma cells and the micro-environment and the immune system are necessary to identify novel therapeutic targets in bone sarcomas. Because of the rarity of the diseases, multinational cooperation is essential to evaluate novel therapies in prospective randomized trials.